Buffalo Sabres general manager Jason Botterill has made his decision and has chosen Ralph Krueger to be the team’s next head coach.

“As we sat down with Ralph, we liked what he has from an NHL background, the fact he worked with Carolina as a consultant for five or six years while he was head coach with Team Switzerland,” Botterill said Wednesday morning. “We liked the fact he was on the bench for three years in Edmonton, but we also put a lot of stock into his experience at the World Championships and the World Cup at the Olympics. Those are high-pressure situations where you have to make adjustments and you have to make quick decisions and he got results in those situations. That was impressive from our standpoint.

“When we did the follow up from talking with different players who had worked under Ralph they felt he was a very good communicator with them. That ability to get the most out of a group and communicate with a group we felt was a very good fit for our situation in Buffalo.”

Botterill reportedly had a thorough search for Phil Housley’s replacement and settled on Krueger, who was last behind a bench guiding Team Europe to a runner-up finish at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Jacques Martin and Dave Tippett were reportedly among the finalists for the job.

Since 2014, the 59-year-old Kruger had been chairman of English Premier League side Southampton F.C. It was announced last month that his contract would not be extended.

Krueger’s last presence in the NHL was as head coach with the Edmonton Oilers during the lockout-shortened 2013 season. He was fired — over Skype — after a 19-22-7 record, three years after he was brought into the organization as an associate coach.

Months after his surprising success at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Krueger’s name entered the head coaching rumor mill and remained whenever a new job opened up. He told Pro Soccer Talk in May 2017 that he had turned down two NHL jobs, citing his happiness with his role at Southampton.

Speaking with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun in April, Krueger spoke about the experience he gained in the role as chairman, something he could certainly bring to his new job with the Sabres.

“Now I’ve had the opportunity to be that person who creates a culture where you try to have it that everybody can really find their potential and find out what they’re made of,” Krueger said. “So my evolution has been neat that way. Now six years into this, if someone is asking me about the NHL, your brain goes to a similar role.’”

Krueger, who will be the Sabres’ fifth coach since 2013, has plenty of work ahead of him in turning around the franchise’s fortunes. Buffalo finished with the fifth-worst record in the NHL in 2018-19 and won 16 of their final 57 games after a 10-game winning streak earlier in the season gave hope that The Queen City would see playoff hockey again.

There are good pieces in Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, and possibly Jeff Skinner, should he re-sign, to build around, and Botterill will add another with the No. 7 overall selection in next month’s entry draft.
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